While we were on Saint Peter's island of course we went around to some beaches! But first we attempted some bird watching on the west coast of the island. There are several hundred falcons there in the summer - they fly there all the way from Madagascar to have their babies every year. But we didn't really see any, except for a few flying around occasionally. We instead poked around the coast a bit, which is quite rocky and steep in spots.
This is Cala Fico (plus Martin), the most photographed spot on the island. Many of the falcons have nests on top of the rocky cliffs:
Cala Fico from a little higher up:
After Cala Fico we tried to drive around and see more of the coastline but were foiled by narrow dirt roads and dead ends. There are a couple of paved roads on San Pietro (aside from in Carloforte where they're all paved) but if you go be prepared to drive on some dirt roads. Didn't run into any livestock in the streets here at least!
Next we went to La Caletta beach. There was a little restaurant on the beach where we ate lunch. Martin made a new friend there:
There were a lot of cats on San Pietro. It was a lot like in Turkey - the restaurants and random people fed the street cats and there were just cats everywhere.
La Caletta beach:
In general the beaches on San Pietro were not as nice as the ones in Cala Gonone. They still had the clear water but the blue color was not quite the same and there was a little sea grass in the water (okay I know I'm nitpicking here, these beaches were still gorgeous). I think it's that the beaches on San Pietro didn't have the "wow" factor that the beaches in the Gulf of Orosei had - no steep cliffs behind them and hiding them from view until you're right in front of them.
San Pietro is known for its annual tuna roundup. For 400 years tuna have been swimming by San Pietro and into large nets every spring/summer. So, naturally, one of the main dishes available in restaurants in tuna. And they make tuna in every way possible. I tried some smoked tuna while I was there:
We also ate tuna with pesto and pasta and tuna on pizza (we also had smoked salmon on pizza earlier in the trip which was awesome) and tuna sandwiches with tomatoes and eggplant. Other tuna dishes included salted tuna and tuna with tomato sauce and pretty much anything else you can think of. In some restaurants it was hard to order something off the menu without tuna in it.
La Bobba beach, where we went on our last day on San Pietro:
There are two big columns that stick up out of the ocean near La Bobba. They're a huge tourist attraction but I'm not sure why.
And this trip wouldn't be complete if I didn't show you a picture of some of the pizzas we ate. I think Martin's pizza has tuna on it and mine has rucola, ham, and tomatoes:
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